Stalled adoptions hit Houghton

BOSTON, Massachusetts, August 30, 2004 -- A K-12 "adoption trough" has hurt Houghton Mifflin in recent months, but brighter days are ahead, said President Tony Lucki, president. To meet new adoption opportunities in 2005, Lucki has added 47 sales reps and plans to add another 30 in the fall. The reps, he said, will have smaller territories to improve customer contact and service. For the first half of 2004, revenue is off 4.3 percent to $4731.1 million. This was an ebb period in el-hi adoption cycles, Lucki said. K-12 sales in the quarter that ended June 30 were off 11.7 percent to $274.4 million.

EL-HI HOUGHTON MIFFLIN TONY LUCKI

Pelican import suit settled

Courier. Book-manufacturing sales grew 8 percent to $47 million for the third quarter, compared to a year earlier. Publishing sales grew 16 percent to $10. million. The company trimmed profit expectations for the fiscal year from the 6-8 percent range to 4-6 percent.

Houghton Mifflin. Revenue fell 7.5 percent to $334.l million in the company's second quarter, compared to a year earlier. The company had a net loss of $8.4 million. College sales were up 3 percent to $33.9 milion. Trade and reference was up 11.3 pecent to $33.6 million. El-hi was down 11.7 percent to $274.4 million.

Wiley. Sales grew 3.3 percent to $227 million in the company's first quarter, compared to a year earlier. Net income fell 8.7 percent to $19.9 million. Higher-ed sales were off 4.8 percent to $45.5 million. Professional and trade sales were flat at $76 million. Scientific, technical and medical sales grew 10.8 percent to $46.2 million.

Pearson, IBM in partnership

NEW YORK, August 21, 2004 -- Pearson Education announced a partnership with IBM to publish technology and business books under the IBM Press imprint in English and foreign languages and in both print and electronic formats. The partnership is aimed aty making IBM Press "the world's leading imprint for technology," the compoanies said.

REFER- ENCE PROFES- SIONAL PEARSON

Transaction buys Aldine de Gruyter

Varsity now at 315 schools

WASHINGTON, August 19, 2004 -- The schools and colleges signed up with Varsity Group as their online bokkstire has reached 315, up from 210 a year ago, said company Chair Eric Kulm. A new service of Varsity's eduPartners program includes a tetxbook buyback system, Kulm said. The company reported second-quarter sales of $1.1 million, double a year earlier.

VARSITY EARLIER ARTICLE Varsity gains as out- sourcer

Donald C. Abel (philosophy), St. Norbert College, wrote the second edition of Philosophy, (McGraw-Hill). Mary Beth Norton (history), Cornell University, David M. Katzman (history), University of Kansas, David W. Blight (history), Yale University, Howard P. Chudacoff (history), Brown University, Fredrik Logevall (history), University of California, Santa Barbara, Beth Bailey (history), University of New Mexico, Thomas G. Paterson (history), University of Connecticut, and William M. Tuttle Jr. (history), University of Kansas, wrote the seventh edition of A People and a Nation: A History of the United States (Houghton Mifflin).

Please tell us about your latest project: EDITOR More academic authoring people

McGraw revamp sends execs packing

NEW YORK, August 10, 2004 -- The Professional Book Group at McGraw-Hill is being reduced from three to two divisions, prompting Ted Nardin, group vice president, and Brandon Nordin, vice president of McGraw-Hill/Osborne and McGraw-Hill Technical Education, to resign. Executives for the surviving divisions will be named soon, said Brian Herr, president of higher education, professional and international operations, who is directing the reorganization. McGraw's technical and computer sales have been in a long slump. The Professional Book Group had been comprised of the Trade Operations, Osborne Computer Books, and the scientific, technical and medical divisions. Now there will be a consumer division and a professional division. The consumer division will house the trade division and Osborne. The old STM division will become the professional division. MORE Also, McGraw is moving the Technical Education Division into the Herr's Higher Education Group. Why the change? To become more customer focused, Herr said. Will titles he cut? No decision has been made, he said.

EL-HI MCGRAW- HILL

University press sales surge

NEW YORK, August 8, 2004 -- Sales of books from univerity presses soared in June, according to the latest monthly report from the Association of American Publishers. Hardcover sales almost doubled to $16.4 million in June, compared to a year earlier, breaking free of earlier year-to-date deficits. Sales in the university press paperback category gained 95.6 percent for June, totaling $42.7 million, for an increase 6.7 percent for the year to date. For the year, colleges sales through May were off 11.7 percent from a year earlier. More positive was the K-12 report, with net sales gained 17.9 percent in May, reaching $350.2 million, providing for the strong 12.6 percent growth for the first five months. Still, el-hi sales have a way to go to recover from recession-fueled losses the past three years. Here is the year-to-date data as extrapolated from 92 reporting publishers: Univ press (hard) Univ press (soft) College Scholarly / prof'l El-hi 8.0% 6.7% 0.9 % -1.6% -3.6%

Association of American Publishers EARLIER ARTICLE Previous monthly sales report Databank index

New epistimology journal launched

EDINBURGH, Scotland, August 7, 2004 -- Edinburgh University Press lauched a new journal, Episteme to focus on social dimensions of knowledge. Three issues a year are planned. The editor, Anthony Quinton, a former president of the University of Oxford's Trinity College, said that both analytical and critical approaches will be represented.

JOURNALS TO EARLIER ITEMS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE Chemists object to society salary BERKELEY, California, August 6, 2004 --Members of the American Chemical Society have objected to the $768,000 compensation package for the society's executive director. Robert Bergman, at the University of California at Berkeley, who helped organize a letter of protest over salsries, said many members were outraged to learn that John Crum was paid a base of $586,360 in 2002 and in addition received $134,375 in bonuses plus $14,478 in reimbursed expenses. The total: $767,834. "Somebody needed to say something," said Bergman. Crum had left the job several months before the letter appeared in the society's Chemical & Engineering News. MORE In response to the letter. the chair of the society's board of directors, James Burke, said the American Chemical Society operates "in the highly competitive marketplace" and must offer salaries to attract able executives. Burke called Crum's compensation appropriate. The 159,000-member society has $420 million annual revenue and $1 billion in assets. MORE In the letter of complaint, members called for a public accounting, asking for publication of the history of total compensation for all of society employees who earn more than $150,000. Burke responded that he had legal colunsel that advised him that revealing salaries would be an invasion of privacy. Whether editors of society publications are in the $150,000-plus range jas not been confirmed. JOURNALS TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE R.I.P.: Linda Ball Scovil JACKSONVILLE, Oregon, August 5, 2004 -- Academic publishing consultant Linda Scovil, 63, died at home. She was a former chair of the Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers. Her career included advertising and promotion director at Oxford University Press. She also had been at Harvard University Press, Harper & Row, and Appleton & Lang. In 1972 she ran the first-mail operation for George McGovern presidential campaign. TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE FINANCIALS Pearson. Sales declined 6 percent to $1.6 billion in the first half of the company's fiscal year, compared to a year earlier. The bottom line continued in red ink. El-hi sales were off by 4 percent, higher-ed off 5 percent. Scholastic. Net earnings fell 0.3 percent to $58.4 million in the fiscal year that ended May 31, following a 13 percent fall the year before. Education Group ales grew 14 percent to $2.2 billion. Sales of Read 180 products grew 50 percent. Varsity. Sales doubled to $1.1 million in the company's second quartter, compared to a year earlier. Net income was $519,000, compared to anm $88,000 loss a year earlier. PREVIOUS FINANCIALS TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE Reed adds Seinit to LexisNexis BOCA RATON, Florida, August 4, 2004 -- The Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier boughtv data provider Seinit Inc. to integrate into its LexisNexis risk management products. Seinit focuses on information for recoveringh debts, detecting fraud and employee screening. Sale price: $775 million. ELSEVIER SCIENCE TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE Book encrypting under review NEW YORK, August 3, 2004 -- A task force organized by libraries and the book industry is examining the civil liberties violation potential of computer chip technology for tracking individual titles through the book warehousiing, distribution and sales chain -- and even library checkouts. At issue is RFID technology, short for radio frequency identification. The chips emit transmissions to trace titles through inventories and create new efficiencies in distribution. But could Big Brother eavesdrop on the embedded chips, Patriot Act-like, to see who is reading what? The task force, created by the American Librarians Association, the Book Industry Study Group and others, is working up principles to prevent unintended uses of the technology. MORE Although RFID chips are being used in pilot projects, including the San Francisco Public Library, the task ALA-BISG task force has time on its side. Encrypted titles and pallets for warehousing and shipping are expected to be at least three years away. Bringing the encryption system to library and retail book checkouts mat be as far off as 10 years. TECH- NOLOGY THE BOOK BUSINESS TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE ANALYSIS AND COMMENT MID-YEAR REVIEW John Vivian's annual wrapup of the news for academic authors has been called the most valuable service that any authoring organization can offer its members. Now for the first time Vivian offers a mid-year review on the state of academic authoring. His pick as the most significant news has been the unanticipated, dramatic fall-off in college sales -- down nine-fold in one recent month. "For authors, the shock will hit in September," he says. "March royalty checks reflected strong Fall 2003 shipments, but now the unsold returned books will be subtracted. Many authors who did well in March will be in the hole." YEAR-ENDER VIVIAN TOP STORIES 1. College sales free fall 2. Sudden discount e-textbooks 3. California pricing report 4. El-hi's Bush boost 5. University press slippage 6. Rising permissions costs 7. Print-on-demand technology 8. Journal pricing 9. Elsevier easily bullied 10. Patriot Act resistance TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE Lawsuits in China-Harvard deal CAMBRIDGE, Massachussetts, August 2, 2004 -- Harvard Business School Press and a former distributor of its products in China are suing each other. The distributor, Smart Access, a Chinese company, Smart Access. Claims that $450,000 during the period of the agreement, and so owes Smart Access $45,000 of Harvard Business Press products were sold under a 2002 agreement, with 10 Smart Access due a 10 percent commission. Guo Jun, of Smart Access, has been quoted the Harvard had not paid one cent before canceling the distribution agreement without notice and without explanation, In a separate action. Harvard claims that Smart Access violated the distribution agreement and has continued to infringe Harvard's copyrights and trademarks. Both actions are in the courts in Beijing. JOURNALS TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE DATA BANK NEW YORK, August 1, 2004 -- The broad-ranging genre of professional books, in which many academic authors write, can be expected to average 1.9 percent annual growth through 2008, the Book Industry Study Group projected. In the law subgenre, the growth will be slightly greater, 2.0 percent on average, and in medicine, 1.3 percent less. The U.S. book industry overall is projected to have 3.3 percent annual growth. These are the projections: Business Law Medicine Tech/science Other 2003 1.1 billion 1.9 billion 916 million 1.1 billion 5.1 billion 2008 1.2 billion 2.3 billion 995 million 1.3 billion 5.7 billion UNIVI- VERSITY PRESS EARLIER DATA TO EARLIER NEWS TO TOP TO HOME TO NEWS ARCHIVE